Archive for May, 2009
Mozart, Don Giovanni, Boston Lyric Opera, April 26th, 2009
Is Don Giovanni the greatest of all operas? Many have said so. It is highly arguable. I myself would agree with the proposition. The opera presents a large cast of characters, all subject to intense feelings and conflict of feeling, or conflict between feeling and ideas or values. The characters go through changes, or at least dramatic ups and downs. Everything is rendered into highly expressive music, constantly inventive, finding new forms. Some of the many wonderful ensembles (three to six singers) stop time for lyrical outpouring and meditation, but others develop ongoing human interaction and characters’ changes of heart. Sonata form, with exposition and development of themes, embodies human experience in time. As in Shakespeare, comedy gives some perspective on the high drama, here a drama of seduction, rape, jealousy, self-hatred, civilized oblivion to others’ feelings, class conflict, and the easy resort to violence. The title character’s comic servant, Leporello, gives us some space to breathe, commenting on and making light of events — but he is very disturbing in his acceptance and resignation: this is how things are, how things must be.
Tannery Pond Concerts Season Opening: Carter Brey cello and Christopher O’Riley piano
The Tannery Pond Concerts always start early, and, as I walk across the Darrow School lawns on a Sunday afternoon, encounter friends I haven’t seen for months and greet others I see all the time, I feel that the summer season has really begun. Even Nikolai the Sealyham Terrier war scurrying about the entrance to the old Shaker Tannery, checking out the concert-goers. He knows most of them—both by sight and by smell. I could imagine myself in a scene from Renoir’s La Règle du Jeu. With this particular concert, the season began in earnest, with a brilliantly assembled program and playing of the highest order, but I don’t mean earnest in the sense of “heavy.”
Shakespeare and Company, Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare and Company are responding to the economic downturn and their own drastically reduced budget with a blaze of activity. This year’s season will be longer and more packed than ever. It will also mark the transition from one artistic director to another: Tony Simotes will replace founder Tina Packer, who will be concentrating on directing and long-term goals for the company. The summer season has begun early with Romeo and Juliet, performed primarily by a cast of seven young actors who have not yet finished their training, in a production designed specifically for teens and pre-teens. Under the direction of Jonathan Croy, who has worked with high school and middle school children for many years, these actors have spent the winter months touring New England and New York. Now they finally get to play before adults back at the home base.
Wagner Today and Forever
[Reprinted with thanks from From Beyond the Stave, The Boydell & Brewer Music Blog, originally posted May 5, 2009] Wagner’s operas repel some people and strike others as simply ridiculous. But many of those who scoff, or claim to be repulsed, have never listened to an entire Wagner opera, studied its libretto, or done much [...]
After Bomarzo…
Just as the last major events of the spring season approached, including the final performances of Otto Schenk’s production of Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen at the Met, I realized that if I did not travel to Italy for an important family visit—no, it was not a junket to cover the grand opening of Angels and [...]
20th Century Works of Art on Paper, Bloomsbury Auctions, New York June 3rd, 2009, 2:00 p.m.
Next month Bloomsbury will offer an extraordinary breadth of material, mostly prints, but also a few drawings, as well as a decorative object (Picasso is the culprit, of course.), and some photographs. The largest part of this “American Art,” amounts to no less than a comprehensive survey of American printmaking in the earlier twentieth century. “Modern Prints,” “Contemporary Prints,” and “Pop Art” carry this up to the century’s end. If these sections are less encyclopedic, there are first-rate pieces to be had. There is also an especially appealing section devoted to Mexican prints, including a spectacular group by Rufino Tamayo. The sale contains no end of 20th century classics. An active print collector will have seen many of them with dealers and in museum exhibitions over the years, but I can’t quite remember seeing so many of them concentrated in one place. Without a doubt, a beginning collector could form the torso, if not a good part of the limbs of a serious collection of American prints at this sale.
The Saint, Edinburgh
The people behind the Bramble Bar & Lounge have recently opened a restaurant called The Saint on Saint Stephen Street in Stockbridge.
Like Bramble and The Bailie (a fine pub on the western corner of the same street, great for an after-dinner dram), The Saint is located in the underground level of a Georgian building, typical of Edinburgh’s New Town which is renowned for such spaces.
Lully’s Psyché by the Boston Early Music Festival, 2007, now on CD
Below you will find my review of the Boston Early Music Festival’s magnificent performance of Lully’s Psyché on June 24, 2007 at the Mahaiwe Arts Center in Great Barrington. As the 2009 festival approaches, it seems appropriate to transfer it to our new site with a few remarks about the recording of the performance which was nominated for a Grammy award for best opera. This vivid and colorful recording, made in Jordan Hall, Boston, provides an accurate, clear, and beautifully balanced record of the performance reviewed below. You will hear the splendid singing and original instruments in sparkling presence and full resonance, not to mention the liveliness of the singers interchanges. Bravi tutti!
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